Taiwan to Ship 3 Percent Lesser Monitors in 2008: MIC

Taiwan is expected to ship 113 million monitors this year, a 3 percent decrease from 2007 and the first drop in history, due to the slowdown in global LCD monitor market, according to the Market Intelligent Center (MIC) under Institute for Information Industry.

The center forecast that Taiwan would see flat growths in its monitor shipments over next few years, while enjoying an average 40 to 50 percent growth in LCD TV shipments.

Suffering from impacts resulted by the economic downturn and high penetration rate of 96 percent in the mature market, global shipments of monitors are expected to grow only 3.9 percent to reach about 168 million units this year. In the future, MIC said, the annual growth would drop to sub-2 percent level.

Chou Shih-hsiung, Senior Analyst of MIC, pointed out that the increasing market shares owned by South Korean brands Samsung and LG led to shrinking shares of Taiwanese contract LCD monitor makers, who are expected to deliver about 113 million units this year, and their annual shipment growth rate would be only 1 to 2 percent in next few years.

MIC also urged Taiwanese monitor and LCD TV makers to keep an eye on customs tariff. Because all major LCD TV markets levy high import tariffs on LCD TVs, MIC said, making local production and/or global logistics critical for better survival.

Currently, some major Korean TV brands have set up manufacturing in Eastern Europe, compared to which makes most Taiwanese companies relative slow in overseas deployment. That, the analyst warmed, would also weaken local LCD TV makers` competitiveness in the big European Union (EU) market.

Source: CENS